Rick Clunn Wins BASS St. Johns River

With the direction the bass fishing tournament world has been going, Rick Clunn could sense his old ways needed to change. He needed to evolve or risk getting left behind. Long gone were the days of the 15-fish limit when a bounty of 2-pounders would suffice come tournament day. Clunn thrived under those parameters, but the competition has gotten younger and more resourceful. The playing field has changed. The emphasis has shifted to five big bites rather than a mass quantity of average ones. Clunn knew needed to reinvent himself and commit himself to the process. It's the new reality and while Rick Clunn 2.0 hasn't totally completed his reboot, he cleared a major hurdle on that path last week when he set the tournament world on its ear with an unexpected win at the St. Johns River Elite Series. "I hope so," he said. "I've known what to do for 3 or 4 years to reinvent myself. It hasn't been easy to do. I knew I had to give up 30 strikes a day in practice and focus on the event. I had to focus on quality fish. You can catch 2-pounders every day in every tournament, but you won't make the cut. Nowadays, you can't fish for 2-pounders. You have to fish for 4-pounders." With the bass, big and small, all around the St. Johns in the midst of their spawning ritual and maybe toward the tail end of the process, he was able to zero in on quality fish in Lake George.

The river had been a thorn in Clunn's side for some time, though. In three previous Elite Series events held there, his best finish was 55th. Last season was just as much of a struggle, too. He cashed only one check and had five finishes of 81st of lower. He finished 2015 in 104th place in Angler of the Year points. At the Table Rock Central Open last fall, he put his new approach to the test and it resulted in a 3rd-place finish even though he was one fish short of a limit on day 1. "I know what to do, but it's all about discipline in practice," he said. "I stayed with a big-fish pattern all 3 days. I'm working on it, but I'm not completely there yet. That's what I did (at the St. Johns). I refused to fish for small limits. I refused to pick up smaller baits. "This place has been my worst system in my whole career. This is really a neat place to try and reinvent myself on what's been my worst body of water - and it's a great body of water." He had decent days the first 2 days of the tournament, averaging 10 to 12 bites per day to make the cut in 31st place with 31-08. "Going out on day 3, I really thought I could catch a 20-pound bag," he said. "I wasn't thinking about 31 until I had four big ones in the bag and figured I'd try to cull out a 4-pounder." A storm front that brought a change in wind direction on Saturday led to a tremendous hour of fishing as Clunn loaded the boat with a homemade vibrating jig. He finished with a stunning, tournament-best 31-07 stringer and gave himself the cushion he needed to close out the win with 19-00 on Sunday. His 81-15 total was about 9 pounds shy of Chris Lane's winning total from 2014 and eclipsed that of Edwin Evers (2011) and Alton Jones (2012).

In the past, Clunn had been resistant to adopt the slow and methodical pace that is sometimes required to have success in Florida, especially when the finicky fish are on beds and don't commit to biting right away. Last week, he devoted some time in practice to Lake George, where the vast majority of the field wound up fishing. There were fish piled into spawning areas in and around the prevalent eelgrass as well as dollar pads, but the east side had been battered by a west wind and stayed muddy through much of practice. While others were focused on marking as many spawning fish as they could, Clunn picked up on something he saw some locals doing with live bait in Crescent Lake to the east of George. "I watched shiner fisherman in Crescent flipping shiners up under docks," he said. "That was halfway through the day and after that I tied on a big Luck E Strike swimbait and started skipping it under docks. I caught a 6-pounder doing that and that got me on the shad type bait. I got bit consistently." Still, he had to figure out a way to cover water, but not go too fast. "The St. Johns had never been friendly to me," he added. "It never fit my style. I never slowed my lure down, but I figured my boat could slow me down. Instead of covering 50 yards in 5 minutes, I was sitting for 10 to 15 minutes in one spot with my Power-Poles down and that allowed me to cover an area pretty thoroughly." He focused on stretches in between the cypress trees and grass line where there was a mix of hydrilla and dollar pads. "I just worked the inside line," he said. "It was something I got on toward the end of practice and I'd found two areas. Brent Chapman and I were sharing one and on the last two days, he stayed on one and I stayed on the other."

Competition:

The conditions on day 1 were suitable for sight-fishing, but Clunn opted instead to build on what he found in practice rather than fight the crowds for what figured to be a dwindling supply of spawners. He worked the grass lines with his homemade vibrating jig and pitched around the same Luck E Strike ring worm that helped Lane win in 2014. His 31-08 total at the halfway mark had him 31st, just about 8 pounds back of leader Greg Hackney and 2-12 ahead of 51st place. By clinching a check, it'd already been a successful tournament from a financial standpoint. With his wife, Melissa, and youngest son, River, due to arrive in Jacksonville on a previously scheduled flight Saturday afternoon - they'd planned a Spring Break trip to the beach once the tournament finished up - day 3 turned into another classic Clunn snapshots in a career filled with them. At the dock Saturday morning, while chatting with Cliff Crochet, one of the younger pros who Clunn gets a kick out of being around, Clunn floated the idea that he felt he was going to catch 20 pounds that day. As it turned out the conditions played right into his hands. He caught two decent fish to start on the ring worm, but during the late morning a front started to push through and the wind picked up and changed directions. "It was a perfect storm," Clunn said. "The wind shifted and it started raining." And the big fish started biting. He caught a 6-pounder on the ring worm, which he'd been using under slicker conditions. "The minute I caught that one, the wind moved and started blowing and I picked up that moving bait," he said.

The next hour proved to be one of the memorable 60-minute segments of his storied career. The key, he believes, was throwing a reaction bait rather than dragging or hopping something along the bottom. "I don't know if these fish are so far along without having much of a winter, but it seemed like there were some post-spawners in there ready to eat," he said. When it was windy, he kept the vibrating jig just under the surface, sometimes waking it back. "I kept it high in the water column and they'd just smash it," he said. "I had to go to the worm when it got calm. I made long casts, almost blind casting it to areas." After he checked in Saturday, he called Melissa to find out if they'd landed yet. She and River were running a little late so he held off until they arrived in Palatka before weighing in because he knew he had a giant bag of fish. River hadn't witnessed any of his dad's tournament wins - the last came in 2002 - so it was important for Clunn for him to be there. "Early in my career, I fished for myself," Clunn said. "I know that sounds selfish, but for most competitors that's what it was about - number one. I'm at a stage in life now where my wife and sons and girls are number one. "It took my daughters a long time to figure out what the heck their dad did. They'd asked, When are you going to get a job at the store? They'd see me leave for a week or two at a time and come home for a week, but they didn't see any sort of work being done. "For my sons (Sage is 17, River is 12), they hear all this stuff from their friends and friends' dads about how great I am. To them, I'm still just dad. I'm not Rick Clunn, the bass fisherman." On Saturday, River had a front-row seat to see what this Rick Clunn, the bass fisherman, is all about. With many of his fellow competitors crowded around the stage, Clunn slammed 31-07 and took the wind out of the sails of the other anglers near the top of the leaderboard. He carried a 6-pound lead into the final day and rode a strong early morning bite Sunday to the win, withstanding a 21-pound effort from Hackney, who finished 4 pounds back. Afterward, Clunn was reflective on whether he thinks this could be his last triumph. "I have to remember to evolve," he said. "That's where I'm at. I have to evolve. I can't be the Rick Clunn of old and win again. Will I win again? I hope so, but who knows."

Winning Pattern:

Clunn said he had a Texas-rigged swimbait tied on, but eventually went to the vibrating jig with a swimbait trailer because the single swimbait wasn't coming through the grass how he wanted it to. He mainly used a vibrating jig with a green hue to it and a green skirt. The strikes, he added, were violent. "When they'd eat it, they'd almost take the rod out of your hand," he said. "It was a fun bite. It'd be in the back of their throat."

Winning Gear:

Vibrating jig gear: 7'6" heavy-action casting rod, casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 65-pound braided line, 3/8-oz. homemade vibrating jig (green skirt), 5" Luck-E-Strike Luck-E-Swim (sexy shad) trailer. Clunn made it clear he has no intention of mass-producing or marketing the vibrating jig he built and used. He said it was important to use stout components - a strong hook and heavy-duty snap - so it would hold up when swinging 5- and 6-pound fish into the boat.

Worm gear: Same rod, same reel, same line, 1/4-oz. tungsten worm weight, 5/0 Owner worm hook, 6" Luck "E" Strike original ringer worm (black with blue tail).

Main factor: "Slowing my boat down and fishing bigger baits. I've known for about 5 years now that I have to reinvent myself. Fishing for 2-pounders won't cut it anymore."

Performance edge: "My Power-Poles were crucial to the way I fished all week."

St. Johns River Winning Pattern BassFan 3/22/16 (Todd Ceisner)

After day 2, Hackney was lamenting the fact that he'd yet to tangle with a fish in excess of 6 pounds as he watched many of his competitors parade on stage with 8-, 9- and in some cases 10-pounders. Finally, on day 3 he connected with a 7-10 brute to move back into the lead, but it was only temporary as by the end of the afternoon Clunn had stunned everyone with a 31-07 stringer that left Hackney 6 pounds back entering day 4. He closed the tournament by fishing a fourth different area, not far from takeoff, and caught 21-00 to secure his third top-8 finish in the last four full-field Elite Series events going back to last season. In four Elite Series events at the St. Johns River, he's yet to finish any lower than 16th. "Every fish was either spawning, had just got there to spawn, was guarding fry or was around the nest," he said. "I spent most of my tournament practice staying toward the dirtier water. That seemed to cut down on fishing pressure. In 4 days, I really wasn't around anybody." He basically junk-fished his way to a runner-up finish, focusing on a different area each day and using a variety of baits to generate bites. "On day 1, I spent the whole day in one area, then on day 2, I spent the majority of the day in a different area," he said. "I went back to where I'd caught them on day 1 and found they were done." A swim jig produced his key fish on day 1, while a dropshot presentation fooled his day-2 catch. On day 3, he opted to stay on the east side of Lake George, where the water had cleared up and offered the opportunity to target fish that had been mostly untouched. Those fish saw a steady diet of a Texas-rigged soft stickbait. "It wasn't as good, but it got me through," he said. "The conditions had gotten better and I figured I'd check it because it'd been super dirty earlier in the week." He devoted the final day to a small creek near Palatka and relied on a balsa prop bait and pitching a creature bait to shallow cover. "I had practiced all of the areas, but this is a funny place," he said. "I've yet to really get on 'em. (Terry) Scroggins is one of the few guys who consistently gets on eaters."

Swim jig gear: 7'6" heavy-action Quantum Tour KVD casting rod, Quantum Tour KVD casting reel, 50-pound Gamma Torque braided line, 3/8-oz. Strike King Hack Attack swim jig (black/blue), Strike King Rage Craw (blue bug). Hackney also caught one on a Strike King Shim-E-Stick on day 1.

Dropshot gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Quantum Tour PT casting rod, same reel, 16-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 3/0 Hack Attack flipping hook, Strike King KVD Magnum Dream Shot (brown purple), 1/8-oz. Strike King tungsten dropshot weight. On day 2, he switched areas and presentations, opting for a dropshot that he would blindly pitch around on low tide to capitalize on an area that still had fish that he'd found in practice.

Soft stickbait gear: 7'6" heavy-action Quantum Tour PT flipping stick, same reel, 20-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 3/16-oz. Strike King tungsten worm weight, 5/0 unnamed straight-shank flipping hook, 5" Strike King KVD Perfect Plastics Shim E Stick (black/blue). On day 4, he slung a homemade balsa prop bait (bluegill) on 25-pound Gamma copolymer line. He also pitched a Strike King Rage Bug (black neon) on the same gear as the Shim E Stick. "Fishing was kind of junky," he said. "I never could get dialed in and a lot of that stemmed from experience. With hindsight being 20-20 - and we have a lot of hindsight here - built d a lot

Main factor: "Probably just not getting locked down and never committing to an area the whole time. I flew by the seat of my pants. It was typical junk fishing."

Performance edge: "Those Power-Poles - I don't know how I made it without those. And my (Phoenix) boat and (Mercury) motor. I filled up with gas Sunday morning and didn't go anywhere, but the first 3 days I covered ground and covered it quickly."

St. Johns River 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/24/16 (Todd Ceisner)

Marty Robinson was part of the Lake George sight-fishing regatta on days 1 and 2 and it carried him to more than 38 pounds and a spot in the Top 10 entering the weekend. He knew, though, that it wouldn't be enough to carry him through 4 days. "The sight-fishing started running out on day 3," he said. "I'd found some new sight-fish at the end of the day 2 that I figured I'd go to to start day 3. They were at the south end of George and I stayed down there long than I wanted to." That left him a little bit of time to check out his alternate area where he'd caught some casting a jig around in practice. "I felt good about the area where I could catch them fishing, but I didn't know how big a bag I could have because in practice I caught a few nice ones and shook some off," he said. The area produced a 7-04 brute to cap off a strong day 3 that earned him a spot among the 12 finalists. "Sunday, I figured I'd just go there and fish all day and see what I could catch," he said. He wound up sacking up his best limit of the week to move into the Top 3.

Jig gear: 7' mag-heavy Castaway Rods Invicta casting rod, unnamed casting reel, 65-pound P-Line braided line, 3/8-oz. Buckeye jig (black/blue), unnamed craw trailer (black/blue). He went with the 65-pound braid due to the pads in the area.

Sight-fishing gear: 7' heavy-action Castaway Rods Invicta casting rod, unnamed casting reel, 20-pound P-Line fluorocarbon line, 3/16-oz. unnamed tungsten worm weight, 5/0 Hayabusa offset worm hook, Zoom Critter Craw (green-pumpkin). Robinson likes a shorter rod when sight-fishing because he likes to stay back off the fish. "I feel like if I'm back off of that fish where I can't see what he's doing, I'm more apt to let them take the bait good." Robinson also caught topwater fish on a 3/8-oz. Buckeye buzzbait and a Booyah Pad Crasher frog.

Main factor: "Not being in the crowd this week. The last time we here I was in the crowd. It started out good, but went south real quick. I didn't want to do that this year. I had to pick areas with less fish, but I had less boats around me."

Performance edge: "Line here is a big deal here. These fish are so big strong and there's so much junk in the water. I never broke a fish off. I lost one, but never broke off. That P-Line is such a great line."

St. Johns River 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/24/16 (Todd Ceisner)

Those who know how Drew Benton likes to catch fish know the St. Johns River in March sets up to be in his wheelhouse. He was the lone angler to catch 20 pounds or more on three of the four days and he did it largely by stalking spawning fish all around Lake George. "In practice, I found everything I could, but it's never enough," he said. "I burned everything I could trying to make the cut. That's the only way to fish a sight-fishing tournament. You can never find enough. You might have 100 marked, but maybe only get a shot at 15 of them." The key to locating beds was finding the right kind of vegetation. "Almost always they were in the eelgrass," he added. "They were not in the open sandbar area. There some in the dollar pad area. They needed some kind of vegetation and then it was a matter of finding those sweet spots." He opened the event by targeting the western side of George down to the southwest corner. His downfall was day 2 when he recycled water from day 1. His weight fell off by more than half. He bounced back on Saturday with 20-11 out of the northeast corner of George to clinch a top-12 berth. "On day 3, I went to totally new area where I'd a few big ones cruising around in practice," he said. "They were locked on beds Saturday and that's how I caught them." He had a chance at a 10-plus pounder on day 3 that would've gotten rid of a 3-pounder, but the fish came off. On the final day, he returned to an area where the river empties into Lake George where he'd seen some 3-pounders the day before. "When I got there, I started seeing some big ones," he said. He sight-fished mostly with a TightLines UV Whisker craw, which is a soft-plastic craw bait with skirt material incorporated into the bait. He also mixed in a Bagley Tail Spin that he threw while scanning for new spawning areas. "I caught a few that I weighed in on that," he added. "When they ate it they choked it. They exploded on it. I'm not sure if they were guarding fry, but they wanted it."

Sight-fishing gear: 7'7" heavy-action Phenix MBX casting rod, Lew's Team Pro Magnesium Speed Spool ACB casting reel, 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. Elite Tungsten worm weight, 5/0 Owner worm hook, TightLines UV Whisker Hy-brid craw (COLOR).

Prop bait gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Phenix M1 casting rod, same reel, 50-pound Seaguar Kanzen braided line, 20-pound Seaguar Senshi monofilament line, Bagley BangOLure Spin Tail (olive shad).

Main factor: "I'm just so comfortable catching them off beds. It's the way I love to catch them. I have a lot of experience sight-fishing being from Florida. Since I've started fishing, I've always been able to see them and catch them that way."

Performance edge: "My Costas were key and so were my Power-Poles for sure. We depend on the best of everything from line to rods and hooks. It all played a role. It also didn't hurt to have the fastest boat."

St. Johns River 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/24/16 (Todd Ceisner)

Brent Chapman has three top-20 finishes in four trips to the St. Johns after he mounted a weekend rally last week to notch his first top-5 outcome since the Alabama River in 2013. "This one was similar to the others," he said. "I've had three good tournaments here, but the 2014 event left a bad taste in my mouth. My problem then was I underestimated what the weights were going to be and I did it again this time. I thought 12 pounds (per day) would get a check. It was way better than that. People are learning it and the bar has been raised." In 2012, when he finished 4th, Lake Woodruff was a big part of his success. He checked it during a pre-practice trip and immediately wrote it off. "They sprayed it and it was nothing it was the year it was so good," he said. Once practice got started, he said it was hard to gauge what kind of quality he was around. "I don't even set the hook on fish so it's hard to tell how practice went," he said. "You can make a flip here and catch a 13-incher or a 13-pounder." He was boat 80 on day 1 so he didn't have first dibs on any premium sight-fishing locations. Still, he figured out how to salvage the day with 13-05. "That took the wind out of my sails as far as getting on one of those good fish," he said. "I have enough experience here, thought, and I like fishing Florida that I'm type to put my poles down and really fish slow." He targeted the edges of the eelgrass as well as the holes that fish would use as bedding areas. He was one of the few anglers who crossed paths with Clunn and also got on the vibrating jig program. "I had waypoints in another area and had kind of written it off, but after day 2 I knew I had to do something to make something big happen," he said. "Lo and behold I sat down in that area and lost one and caught one. Then an hour or so later, Clunn shows up and so does Cliff Crochet."

Flipping/pitching gear: 7'6" Wright & McGill Brent Chapman Insight Pro Advantage casting rod, Wright & McGill Brent Chapman Insight Pro Advantage casting reel (7:1 ratio), 20-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 3/8 Picasso tungsten worm weight, 3/0 Lazer TroKar flipping hook, 4" TightLines UV Whisker Beaver (watermelon red).

Vibrating jig gear: 6'8" Wright & McGill Brent Chapman Insight Pro Advantage crankbait rod, same reel (6.4:1 ratio), 60-pound Gamma Torque braided line, 3/8-oz. Picasso Shock Blade, unnamed swimbait trailer (shad). Chapman also caught a couple keepers on a Texas-rigged TightLines UV Enko stickbait.

Main factor: "My past experience here and slowing down and being thorough."

Performance edge: "My Power-Poles allowed me to be thorough and execute."

St. Johns River 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/24/16 (Todd Ceisner)